


Emotion

by Before_i_sleep



Series: Where the Monsters Are [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Anger, Chimeras, Gen, Identity, Insecurity, Kid Fic, Theo has problems, he’s an angry kid, the Doctors are jerks, the only person in Theo’s life who cares about him is himself, theo punches a wall in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 15:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12773544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Before_i_sleep/pseuds/Before_i_sleep
Summary: Fear is a very human emotion. So of course Theo doesn’t feel fear. Usually. Because Theo isn’t human.Anger, on the other hand. Anger is a very *Theo* emotion.-His shifted face - sharp teeth, yellow eyes - stared back at him.‘That’s the face of a chimera,’ he thought.He wiped the blood from the back of his already-healed hand. He was no human. He was a chimera, through and through, and he didn’t have to prove that to anybody.





	Emotion

Theo was ten when he first accompanied Roberts on a job.

They were looking for a faerie in LA, and Roberts made it clear that the only reason Theo was there was to help locate the target. When Theo asked why he couldn’t locate it himself with his weird mind powers, he just reminded him that if he messed this up, he would tear his mind apart with said mind powers and never put it back together again.

“Hurry it up, kid,” Roberts snapped, “We don’t have all day.”

Theo was scanning the building with his beta eyes for a faerie. Roberts had said his eyes were like infrared scanners, and the faerie would have a lower body temperature than anyone else in the building so it would look purple. He was looking for it, but there were a lot of people to look through.

After a few more moments, he spotted a dark purple spot hovering on the third floor. _Finally._

“It’s on the third floor,” he said, “In the room farthest east. It’s alone.”

“Stay here,” Roberts ordered, standing. “If anything goes south, you get back to base. The Doctors would torture me for a month if I got their experiment killed.” They wouldn’t kill him, of course. Roberts was their greatest success yet, even more so than Theo.

Things went south, and Theo ditched the scene and got back to the Doctors’ lair as quickly as he could, but he got shot along the way. It was just in the arm, and for some reason it didn’t hurt, but he was sure it was probably going to. It was probably just shock or something, which would wear off soon. He didn’t have time to stop; he had to get away from the hunter chasing him and he had to get to the lair. _It’ll heal,_ he told himself, _I heal fast now, remember? It’ll be fine. You’re a chimera. You’re an enhanced, preternatural creature. You can get to the lair._ He got to the lair, but he figured that probably had more to do with adrenaline and chimera speed than his positive mantra.

Theo sagged against the door of the abandoned restaraunt as the adrenaline rush wore off. No hunter could get in here, the Doctors had made sure of that when they set up camp (or lab, rather). Meaning Theo was no longer about to die.

As he felt the adrenaline fade, however, exhaustion and pain hit him like a bag of bricks. He finally got a good look at his arm and realized it was bleeding. Roberts had taught him how to tell how bad a gunshot wound was (“not that it’ll kill you anyway, but it’s good information to have”), and he tried to recall it but he couldn’t, as his mind was a bit preoccupied with the fact that he’d just been shot. It _felt_ like a lot of blood.

The Doctors should be in the back somewhere. They didn’t actually have their lab set up because they weren’t staying in town long enough to do any important research, they were just here to obtain the fairy and move on. Where they were heading, Theo didn’t know. And right now, he didn’t really care because his arm felt like it was on fire and he didn’t know exactly how his healing ability worked but he really wished it would work faster. Since it was at its own pace, he figured the Doctors would be able to do something.

He hesitated at the door to the back room. He was only supposed to bother them in the event of an emergency.

 _This_ is _an emergency, idiot, you just got shot._

He pushed the door open with his good shoulder, clutching his bleeding arm. The Geneticist and the Surgeon were the only ones there, already standing and examining a whiteboard full of scribbled equations or something. They both looked back at the sound of the door opening.

“What?” the Geneticist rasped, sounding as creepy and annoyed as always. The Surgeon didn’t say anything.

His eyes were obscured by the old gas mask, but Theo could feel them boring into him.

“What do you want, boy?” the Geneticist snapped again, and Theo’s focus was jerked back to the situation at hand, with his bleeding arm throbbing.

“My arm,” he said, “I got shot.”

If possible, the Geneticist seemed more disinterested than before. “You’ll heal.”

“But-”

“But what?” The question came from the Surgeon, whose voice scraped like he’d been eating nails.

Theo was very suddenly very still. The wolf and the coyote in him recognized the Surgeon for what he was: a predator. He was the most dangerous thing Theo had ever encountered on his short life. He knew that, even back then.

He wasn’t sure what the cold snaking down his spine was, but he told himself it wasn’t fear. He wasn’t afraid of the Doctors.

 _I shouldn’t have come in here,_ he thought, _I should’ve just let it heal._

But the Surgeon had more to say. “But… it hurts?” he asked, slowly, each word measured, “But you’re in pain? But you don’t want to wait for it to heal?” He paused, waiting.

Theo nodded, his heart racing, and yeah, okay, it might have been fear.

“Do you know what those are, Theo Raeken?” he continued, “Those are the words of a weak, frightened human child from a small town in California. A child who claims he doesn’t need his family but still wants someone to hold his hand. Is that what you are?”

His words struck an out-of-tune cord in Theo. _Weak, frightened, human._ He was none of those things. He was a freaking chimera. Indignation and boiling anger welled up in him. Who did that scientist think he was?

Theo’s heart was already racing, and now his hands were trembling, but it wasn’t out of fear.

_Weak._

He wasn’t weak.

_Frightened._

Screw him. What did Theo even have to be scared of?

_Human._

“I’m not,” he said through gritted teeth (because if he said it any louder he would yell, and he had learned the hard way that yelling at the Doctors was not a wise course of action).

“Then what are you?” the Surgeon asked.

“A chimera,” Theo answered, his voice hard.

“So act like it,” the Surgeon ordered. He and the Geneticist abruptly turned back to whatever they were working on, and just like that the conversation was over, as quickly as it started.

Theo left the room - he did not storm out because that would be childish and he wasn’t that - and returned to the front of the building without killing anyone, which was an accomplishment. He wanted to stay, he wanted to argue and scream and maybe punch the doctor, but he didn’t.

_Weak._

He had killed his sister in cold blood, watched his parents die, and left his best friend. He was one of the only chimeras in history to survive inception. And unlike the Doctors, he didn’t hide behind a gas mask to make himself seem more dangerous than he was (he knew the Surgeon was dangerous, but the masks were ridiculous). He was the farthest thing from weak.

Theo felt a fresh wave of anger surge over him and punched the wall beside him. He punched it again, and again, letting out a shout from his anger and the pain. When he finally stopped, there was a hole in the wall.

_Frightened._

He slumped forwards against the wall, suddenly exhausted by his outburst, and stood there for several seconds, the only noise his ragged breathing. It occurred to him that he realized he had shifted at some point between the beginning and end of his explosion. His claws were out. His hand had stopped hurting after a few seconds. His arm no longer hurt.

_Human._

He stared at his arm. There was dried blood around the wound, but the injury itself was closed. There was a barely-there scar that would probably fade soon. That was… faster than expected. He was pretty sure that the last time he was seriously injured, when the Doctors were testing his endurance, had taken longer. He was certain of it, in fact.

A light in the corner of his vision caught his eye, distracting him from that train of thought. Turning, he saw his reflection in the broken restaurant window. His shifted face - sharp teeth, yellow eyes - stared back at him.

 _That’s the face of a chimera,_ he thought.

He wiped the blood from the back of his already-healed hand. He was no human. He was a chimera, through and through, and he didn’t have to prove that to anybody.

**Author's Note:**

> I admit I felt like this was a bit messy, but Theo’s in a rather messy state of mind, so it’s whatever.  
> Please, tell me what you thought. Comments, critiques, questions, anything you’ve got.


End file.
